Jan> I didn't quite get why he wants that.
 
 rm -rf xemacs-21.2-b147
 tar xvzf .../xemacs-21.2-b148.tar.gz
 cd xemacs-21.2-b148
 ./configure
 make
 src/xemacs
 
 Jan> In particular I cannot see the user group being that big.
 
 Hey, not my idea.  Why didn't anyone speak up when Ben argued for it? 
What's wrong with configuring with --package-path ?  I've been
using that for at least a year.  Works fine.  Put it into a
script and you never have to type it again.